


Rock of Gibraltar

by Domenika Marzione (domarzione)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, Defrosting Captain America, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-16
Updated: 2013-03-16
Packaged: 2017-12-05 10:35:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/722082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/domarzione/pseuds/Domenika%20Marzione
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper's reasons for cleaning up Tony's messes are different now, professionally and personally, but some of them go back longer than she does and none of them loom larger than the ghost of Howard Stark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rock of Gibraltar

Pepper's in Mumbai when Rhodey calls her and as soon as she sees his name on her phone, her heart sinks a little. James Rhodes is a good man, honest, funny, caring, intelligent, and ambitious and if he weren't so career-oriented, she'd have set him up with one of her girlfriends years ago. But while they have shared many a laugh and tear and hug and meal over the years, they are not friends. They are usually allies, occasionally conspirators, but not friends except that they are the two most important human beings in Tony Stark's life and that is a bond in itself. But not one of friendship.

Which is why there is no reason for him to be calling her -- at what must be the middle of the night for him -- unless Tony's done something bad.

"Hey," he begins without preamble. After all of these years, they do not stand on ceremony. "Any chance you can get back home any sooner than Wednesday?"

His words are a little slurred. He's probably been drinking with Tony.

"What happened?"

She's currently in India as part of the unofficial Stark Industries world tour of penance, racking up the miles to do meet-and-greets, cut ribbons, shake hands, pose for photos, sit through PowerPoint presentations, and all of the other shallow but necessary obligations required to show that Stark Industries is back and better than ever, that they are serious -- that _she_ is serious and qualified to be CEO -- and to win back (and in some cases, win in the first place) the goodwill that Tony squandered by being, well, Tony Stark. For all the times that he showed up somewhere late, drunk, unprepared, visibly and noisily disinterested, or not at all, she is now making amends. She is meeting foremen, congratulating engineering teams, inspecting new factories, and accepting and doling out flattery to government officials. She is also establishing a culture change. Tony does not care about small details, which in most cases are not very small, and that attitude carries with it repercussions. Pepper is asking questions, demanding answers, and taking notes so that everyone knows that the new CEO is not the same as the last CEO and that the details will matter to her. She finished up three different smiling photo ops with private warnings to the factory bosses that if things did not improve (for varying values of 'things,' two being efficiency and one being working conditions), then she would be returning with pink slips and padlocks. Just because she's not the gatekeeper any more doesn't mean she's any less dangerous to cross.

"They found Captain America's plane," Rhodey replies, not quite able to hide the note of... jubilation and awe in his voice. "They found the plane and the shield in it this morning."

Pepper takes a moment to absorb the news -- holy crap! -- and then unpacks what Rhodey will not say aloud unless she pulls it out of him. Tony's issues are legion, his ability to cope with them variable, and which ones are the greatest dangers tend to wax and wane in importance. But the rock upon which many a shrink and several girlfriends have dashed their hopes upon is shaped in the image of Howard Stark and very few things are more connected in Tony's mind than Howard and the search for Captain America.

"I can't make it back early," she tells Rhodey. "My last stop is the factory in Dhaka and I can't break that commitment."

Won't, really, although she doesn't know if Rhodey understands that. The factory in Dhaka is not one that makes high-tech parts for Stark Industries; it makes something much more valuable. It is funded by the Maria Stark Foundation and it employs only women and they make cloth - and enough money to feed their families or, in some cases, to flee from them. Pepper helped start this factory three years ago, well before she had any official power, because Tony had waved his hand dismissively at a MSF letter requesting that he choose a recipient for some particular grant and told her to take care of it. So she had. And now, now that she is the CEO of one of the most important corporations in the world, she wants to go see what she has wrought. This has been her present to herself, the reward for too-rich dinners with too-oleaginous bureaucrats, for shaking hands with factory bosses who might be working a little business action on the side and are definitely undressing her with their eyes, for waking up without knowing what time zone she's in, for the food poisoning in Singapore, for the way there's an element of the press that keeps beating the drum that she's a figurehead, that she's unqualified, that she is where she is because she's good on her back and she'll be gone as soon as Tony bores of her. This is her proving to herself that she didn't sell her soul when she stayed in Tony's employ well after she'd made enough money and connections to go off and save the world like she'd always intended. She cannot miss this for anything and Tony, if she explained it to him, would understand.

Rhodey might not, however, so she tells him to keep an eye on Tony and she'll call him later.

Rhodey had called her right after Gracie had given Pepper her phone back after finishing up at the latest event - a factory visit followed by an orphanage visit - and there are an ungodly number of messages for her to catch up on. She deletes the three that were from Rhodey without listening to them as she rides up the elevator to her hotel suite, ignores the one from her mother (for now), and saves the rest for when she's back in her suite. Gracie, her assistant, keys open the door and starts fussing around, snapping her fingers in a pattern that Pepper has been trained to recognize as "give it to me" and so she takes off her jacket so that Gracie can hang it up.

A quick shower later and she's stretched out on the bed with her laptop and a glass of chai and Gracie making aggravated phone calls out in the living room. Gracie was assigned to her by Tony, who told Pepper that a CEO having a personal assistant was a necessity and not an indulgence, and Gracie was clearly chosen with Pepper's personality in mind, including the part that's not quite ready to have a personal assistant after being one for so long. (Professional assistance, of course, is another matter, and when they don't turn out to be SHIELD spies, Pepper has no trouble delegating.) Which just means that Gracie gets to enjoy breaking Pepper to the bit, although Pepper would like think she's learned a few tricks from being on the other side. She was very good at that job, too.

There are emails and documents from SHIELD about Stark Research Site 349, since while the equipment and funding and the research teams come from Stark Industries, some of the manpower is from SHIELD and they are the ones handling documentation. There are also phone calls and emails from Nick Fury; Stark Industries has the lion's share of decision-making power - he who has the gold makes the rules - and, unsurprisingly, Tony hasn't been acknowledging any attempts at communication.

Pepper reads the material carefully because it's important and because it's technical and because she's been running on fumes for a week and even the simple words take longer than they should to penetrate after a long day with no air conditioning and no potable (bottled) water. The upshot is that they've definitely found the plane and, with it, Captain America's shield. They are fairly sure that there's more, but the weather turned before they could bring the through-wall radar in, so they'll know tomorrow most likely. Once they find out if there's anything (anyone) else there, the actual excavation will need to be carefully planned and special instruments flown up - the ice-cutting tools they have now aren't big enough to free the shield, let alone if they find the remains of Steve Rogers himself. If they do find Captain Rogers' remains, the disposition of them will become a whole separate project because this will be the repatriation of a lost hero.

She can handle the necessary authorizations and does; this is Captain America and whatever SHIELD needs to do this, they get. Which is all Fury cares about; he has little love and less respect for Tony and he's not enough of a sentimentalist to suggest, let alone insist, that Tony display some kind of personal interest in the cause that has been entwined with his family's name for more than half a century.

Pepper isn't that kind of sentimentalist, either, but she's very good at understanding image projection and public opinion and she knows that it will be important for _those_ reasons that Tony will need to become a visible presence at some point. Because it won't be enough to just have Fury publicly thank Stark Industries for the tens of millions of dollars that they've put toward the search and this isn't something that Pepper can do because even if she's the CEO now, Tony's the Stark. He's Howard's son and this is going to be one of those times when he's going to have to handle that with grace.

Once upon a time, Pepper would simply tell Tony to put his big boy pants on and deal with this, or maybe just organize everything anyway and then maneuver him into a position where he'd have to try very hard to get out of it (and would probably show up drunk and belligerent). Once upon a time, Tony could end arguments by reminding her that she was, at the end of the day, his employee, no matter how indispensable she was. But that time has passed and he is no longer just a puzzle game to outwit and she is no longer his gal Friday and so this will be a different discussion entirely. Except not. Because Tony still won't want anything to do with this and she still knows he has to anyway.

The time difference between her itinerary points and California should make it impossible for her and Tony to speak, and for the most part it has. They exchange emails and voicemails and Tony sends her rude texts and charmingly sweet photos, but their actual phone time comes in stolen moments between meetings half a world away or when one of them is just waking up and the other just falling asleep. She's not surprised when he calls her, though, at quarter to four in the morning Pacific time while she's between a meeting and the dinner reception to follow, to talk about nothing at all, interrupting his rambling to thank Dummy for bringing him something (even if that something is a potted plant or a piece of solder) or make a suggestion for where they should go for a vacation. She doesn't bring up SRS349 and what may be there; it's an argument that they both know they'll be having and one they both know will keep. Right now, she can close her eyes and listen to the bemused affection for Dummy and the differently-bemused affection for her and the way the sharp edges of his voice soften when he's in his workshop, surrounded by and connected to what he loves, and he's finally ( _finally_ ) off-stage. This is the real Tony, buried under so many layers that even he can't find himself sometimes, and it is the part of him that she loves without reservation, that she loved even before she recognized the emotion in herself, and the part that she wishes almost above all else that Tony loved more.

By the time she gets back to Malibu, SHIELD knows for sure that there is a body trapped in the ice and it is presumed to be that of Steve Rogers. (The through-wall radar can give them the shape of the body, from which they can estimate proportions, but it cannot give them features or colors or fingerprints. It will be a disappointment of tremendous scale if they wind up digging out some HYDRA thug or Nazi trooper.) The scientists are doing the calculations to figure out how much ice they'll need to cut to excavate the body and how that chunk of ice will get from SRS349 to wherever it's going to wind up (Dover Air Force Base's mortuary service is winning on points, but Pepper would not rule out Fury putting in a last-minute untrumpable claim for a SHIELD lab.) Fury has been copying Pepper on every email to Tony, most of which are requests for him to use his brilliant mind to solve this problem quickly and decisively. Tony, unsurprisingly, has ignored every single one.

He greets her with a hug and a kiss and a lewd suggestion that is mostly to test Gracie (who passes with flying colors). And then he whisks her off to the bedroom, but only for a shower and a fluffy robe because while it's been weeks and she leans in to his touch with a hunger she's embarrassed to display before Gracie (who professionally doesn't notice it), she's _exhausted_ because the flight was all working time. So she lets him lead her to bed and pull the covers over her and kiss her forehead and whisper "thank you" and "I love you" when he thinks she's too far gone to hear him.

When she wakes up, the room is dim save for a spotlight behind her shining down on Tony, who is parked on the other side of the bed with his tablet and his headphones and at his bare feet is one of the tiny holographic projectors that Dummy keeps thinking is a hotplate and putting coffee cups on it.

"Well hello, Miss Potts," he greets her softly, eyes crinkling at the corners as he reaches out to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand that isn't holding the stylus. She smiles back and reaches out to grab at his t-shirt collar to bring him close. He comes willingly. "Welcome home," he breathes against her lips.

The discussion about SRS349 happens Friday morning, which is sooner than Pepper would have liked to have had it, but she loses control of the timing when Fury calls her private line and tells her that it's definitely Steve Rogers and the President has indicated that he doesn't want Captain America's body being shipped in a giant ice cube like a freshly caught salmon haul, which had been the unfortunate first choice of all of the Stark Industries research team and most of the SHIELD delegation. Instead, the President would like Rogers defrosted on-site and returned via Dover in a flag-draped coffin like every other repatriated servicemember's remains, with full military honors and a lying in state so that the public can view the coffin before it is brought to Arlington for the long-delayed burial. There will be a national day of honor and remembrance, a federal holiday, with speeches and foreign dignitaries and all of these things can't be planned the day before, so they'll need to get firm dates on everything and quickly.

Pepper looks over at Tony, who has buttered toast in one hand and his coffee cup in the other and his eyes on the HUD screen that's flashing some kind of blueprints even as she knows he's listening to every word. She tells Fury she'll see what she can do and that's when Tony crams the rest of his toast into his mouth and shuts down the HUD and prepares to make his graceless exit.

"Don't you dare," she tells him in a calm voice. "We both know that this has to be done and there's nowhere you can go that I can't track you down."

He raises his eyebrow in challenge and she returns the gesture. They both know who Jarvis likes better.

"I'm going to remind you of two things and then you can go sulk in your playroom all day," she says in the same even tone. He looks to protest either half of the statement -- maybe both -- but she holds up her hand to stop him. "First, this is something a lot larger than just you finishing Howard Stark's last, great, incomplete task, which we both know you are ignoring precisely to spite someone who cannot be spited. This is Captain America, who deserves the most respectful exhumation that can be managed and, since we are paying for it anyway, it behooves us to put our best people on the project and that best people is you.

"Second, you are Iron Man, a superhero for this age by your own description and you owe it to your spiritual predecessor to see this through. You want the Pentagon to take you seriously? Then you take this seriously because your showing respect for Captain America is what they want. It's what _you_ should want."

Tony glares at her, unable to storm off because he's got a mostly-full coffee cup. "You can't tell me to shed my Daddy Issues with one point and then give me a new lineage with the other, Pep, it's confusing."

She does not frown at him. "There's nothing to be confused by. There's only doing the right thing for a fallen soldier who has waited far too long for someone to bring him home. Who died hoping someone would."

She would never stoop so low as to outright mention Afghanistan, to compare Tony's captivity to this, but she knows how afraid Tony was that he'd die there and never be found. And she knows he'll pretend he doesn't remember because to do so would show weakness. They are sparring opponents right now and weakness is to be avoided at all costs.

He goes off without another word -- to her, at least, he's got plenty for Jarvis -- and they don't speak of it again that day. But she does get copied on an email from Fury to Tony about the logistics of moving the equipment Tony is sending to SRS349 and the personnel manifest and yes, all of them do need government background security checks even if they've been working for Stark Industries for however many years.

When he comes upstairs at seven-thirty to suggest they go out to dinner, she tells him she needs to change and he tells her only if she puts on the blue Carolina Herrera he bought for her right before she left. She agrees.


End file.
